34 David Foster Wallace Quotes

David Foster Wallace was a writer known for his deep, thought-provoking ideas and unique way with words.

Through his novels, essays, and speeches, he explored what it means to be human, the challenges of modern life, and the small details that shape our everyday experiences.

In this collection, you’ll find some of his most powerful and memorable quotes—words that continue to inspire, comfort, and make us think.

David Foster Wallace Quotes On Writing and Creativity

1. “Fiction’s about what it is to be a human being.”
   — Interview with Larry McCaffery, 1993
2. “You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing—your vanity is at stake.”
   — Interview with Larry McCaffery, 1993
3. “The reader becomes God, for all textual purposes.”
   — Interview with Larry McCaffery, 1993
4. “I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art.”
   — E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction, 1993
5. “The next real literary ‘rebels’ in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels.”
   — A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, 1997

David Foster Wallace Quotes On Culture and Media

Wallace critically examined the influence of media and culture on society, often highlighting the subtle ways they shape our perceptions.

1. “Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
2. “The interesting thing is why we’re so desperate for this anesthetic against loneliness.”
   — A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, 1997
3. “It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
4. “TV’s ‘real’ agenda is to be ‘liked,’ because if you like what you’re seeing, you’ll stay tuned.”
   — E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction, 1993
5. “Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”
   — This Is Water, 2005

David Foster Wallace Quotes On Life and Consciousness

Delving into the human psyche, Wallace offered profound insights into self-awareness and the intricacies of daily existence.

1. “You can be shaped, or you can be broken. There is not much in between.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
2. “The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
3. “You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
4. “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
5. “Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
6. “How odd I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.”
   — The Pale King, 2011
7. “Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
8. “The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
9. “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way…”
   — This Is Water, 2005
10. “Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.”
    — Infinite Jest, 1996

David Foster Wallace Quotes On Mental Health and Humanity

Wallace’s candid discussions on mental health shed light on the internal struggles many face, emphasizing empathy and understanding.

1. “The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of ‘hopelessness’…”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
2. “This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
3. “What passes for hip cynical transcendence of sentiment is really some kind of fear of being really human.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
4. “There’s good self-consciousness, and then there’s toxic, paralyzing, raped-by-psychic-Bedouins self-consciousness.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
5. “Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.”
   — The Pale King, 2011
6. “True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer.”
   — The Pale King, 2011
7. “The horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle.”
   — Consider the Lobster, 2005
8. “We’re all lonely for something we don’t know we’re lonely for.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
9. “The familiar panic at feeling misperceived is rising, and my chest bumps and thuds.”
   — Infinite Jest, 1996
10. “My life is unmanageable and I’d like to share it with you.”
    — Infinite Jest, 1996

David Foster Wallace Quotes On Freedom and Choice

Exploring the concepts of autonomy and decision-making, Wallace emphasized the significance of conscious choice in shaping our lives.

1. “There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
2. “You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
3. “Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
4. “The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”
   — This Is Water, 2005
5. “The point of life is to be a person, to be self-aware, and in connection.”
   — This Is Water, 2005

David Foster Wallace Quotes On Love and Human Connection

Despite his struggles with isolation, Wallace deeply understood the necessity and difficulty of authentic human connection.

1. “To be a mass of contradictions that somehow coheres into a recognizable self.”
   — From “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,” published 1999
2. “We all suffer alone in the real world; true empathy’s impossible. But if a piece of fiction can allow us imaginatively to identify with a character’s pain, we might then also more easily conceive of others identifying with our own.”
   — From a 1993 interview with Larry McCaffery
3. “Mario, what I don’t think you see is that sometimes, when people call you ‘retarded,’ what they’re really saying is just ‘slow down’ or ‘for crying out loud, a little less enthusiasm would be refreshing.'”
   — From “Infinite Jest,” published 1996
4. “The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theater. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all—all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify an audience.”
   — From “The Pale King,” published posthumously 2011

David Foster Wallace’s words still matter today because they help us think about life, how we treat others, and what it means to be real. His ideas encourage us to look closer at the world around us, be kind, and live with more awareness. As we go through life, his quotes can guide and remind us that even ordinary moments can be full of meaning.